Dasy to invest €20 million in new fish meal plant
Spanish pet food and fish feed manufacturer Dasy Organización is to invest more than €20 million in building a new plant for production of fishmeal for animal feed in Osuna, Andalusia, Spain.
The firm, owned by agribusiness PGG group plans to invest an additional €20 million in its rendering plant which is in operation for eight years now, bringing total investment in facilities amount to €40 million.
Dasy president, José María Gimeno, said the new plant will create 200 new jobs, which will join the 200 jobs already in the locality. Osuna will process chicken meal for animal feed and supply feed to its fish farms.
"We will rearrange our activities. The Barcelona plant will produce for Spain, France, Germany and Italy while almost 100% of the Osuna production plant will be dedicated for export to China and Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand or Malaysia, "said Gimeno.
"We’re talking about 30 or 40 containers per week that will go through Cadiz and Algeciras", stated the company president.
New strategy
PGG’s new strategy has also provided commercial reorganization. The headquarters of Dasy Organización has moved to Andalusia and the company will channel the internationalization of the group.
The firm already has two fishmeal plants in Colombia and is developing two other projects in Venezuela and Morocco.
The group, which employs about 300 workers in total at different production sites, has a turnover of about €70 million, of which the Andalusian business contributes €20 million.
"With these investments, you probably increase turnover between 40 and 50 million just in Andalusia," Gimeno adds.
Mad cow crisis
As rendering operation, Dasy began operations in 2002 with the mad cow crisis, when the government of Andalucía awarded the company the sole service of collection, transportation and destruction of animals.
Until two years ago Dasy worked directly with the local government through an administrative concession. "But in 2009 it had to deal with the public company, Tragsega, a Tragsa subsidiary, which lacks the ability to carry out the service and the collection system," Gimeno said.
Its concession with Tragsega is renewed year by year, something which Gimeno does not appreciate.
Gimeno called the government to ensure the provision of the service for at least ten years to be able to undertake the investment plan with some guarantees.
"We need this safety over time because in less than ten years it is impossible to earn a return on an investment of twenty million euros," he said.
